How To Use Saw Palmetto To Prevent Hair Loss

How To Use Saw Palmetto To Prevent Hair LossShruti GoenkaJune 23, 2016

We hear of many hair loss medicines or treatments which claim to show significant results. But we don’t know how many of them actually work! There are certain hair treatments that use harmful chemicals, which can damage hair and cause it to break off. So avoid the ones which have lots of chemicals and instead opt for natural treatments. When talking about natural treatments, the one treatment that you should definitely give a try is saw palmetto hair loss treatment.

In this post, we will answer all your questions related to saw palmetto hair treatment like why saw palmetto is so commonly recommended for hair loss treatment. How should one use saw palmetto and how far it is effective to use saw palmetto for hair loss?

Before going into the details of it, let us first brief you about what is saw palmetto.

Saw palmetto is a natural herb that is popularly used for treating hair loss. Saw palmetto is originally a smaller palm plant profoundly found in North America. It mainly grows around the Atlantic coastal states of Florida and Georgia. Rich in fatty oils and phytosterols, it has been used in traditional medicine since ancient times by the American Indians, The Mayans, and The Seminoles. It is also used in alternative medicine to treat a variety of ailments and is a popular herbal remedy for benign prostatic hyperplasia. The fruit of this plant is considered highly helpful for generating hair growth. Besides this usefulness, saw palmetto has some special qualities for treating urinary infections in men and breast diseases in the women.

Prevent Hair Loss Using Saw Palmetto

Over the past few years, saw palmetto oil has been gaining recognition for its ability to treat hair loss and baldness. Let’s proceed further and see how this saw palmetto works as hair loss treatment.

How Saw Palmetto Works?

Though there have been no scientific studies to conclusively prove the effectiveness of saw palmetto, much of its popularity is based on word of mouth from people who have successfully treated hair loss with saw palmetto and from the fact that it’s an old herbal remedy that has still managed to stick around which bears testament to its effectiveness.

Usefulness of saw palmetto is not scientifically proven, but it has certain evident benefits in treating hair loss. It works indirectly within the body that in turn helps to prevent hair fall in both men and women. Saw palmetto is commonly believed to block an enzyme called 5-Alpha-Reductase from transforming testosterone into dihydrotestosterone within the body. Dihydrotestosterone is a prime contributing factor behind the outbreak of androgenic alopecia, or partial baldness. The presence of this object in a large amount may suffocate the hair follicles and hinder the growth of new hair. Saw palmetto helps to block this element effectively. It, therefore, prevents hair loss and stimulates hair re-growth.

In a small study conducted on ten men and women with moderate hair loss and baldness, saw palmetto proved to be pretty effective. Though the study bears little weight because of the small number of subjects, the fact that saw palmetto has been used as an herbal remedy even before Americans learned to count speaks for itself.

How Should One Use Saw Palmetto?

One needs to intake saw palmetto orally when following a treatment for baldness or hair loss. Oral consumption of the fruit has the best effect on hair growth, as it works internally. External application of saw palmetto offers very slow effects and sometimes no effect at all. One can consume saw palmetto in two ways. Either it can be swallowed as a whole fruit derived from the berry of the plant, or it can be consumed as encapsulated tablets. The ideal dosage of saw palmetto for hair loss is 150 to 300 milligrams a day.

Saw palmetto is a gentle and relatively less side effect riddled method of treating minor to moderate hair regrowth. The fruit does not show any miraculous cure, but takes some time for visible improvement. Some experts have commented that saw palmetto is more effective in treating male pattern baldness. Nevertheless, women can try the fruit as well for fighting against rapid hair loss.

What Kind of Hair Fall Does Saw Palmetto Treat?

Saw palmetto has proven effects in treating both male and female pattern baldness. Although some experts have commented the fruit being more effective on male pattern baldness, female patients can be equally benefitted by its qualities. Saw palmetto is most effective to cure a specific pattern of baldness called alopecia. Alopecia is the most common type of hair loss problem experienced by millions of people around the world. In this type of hair loss, one experiences partial baldness that takes shape on top of the head, and around the temples. The thinning hairlines create a typical pattern resembling a horseshoe on the head.

How Effective Is Saw Palmetto Oil?

Although saw palmetto is taken orally for treatment of alopecia, the oil derived from the fruit is not fully worthless. One needs to apply saw palmetto oil directly on the scalp for the best results. As specified earlier that the fruit takes time to work, one needs to be persistent enough in using the oil regularly. Applying the oil can be real useful for curing thinning hair. The lipophilic properties of the oil contain certain active ingredients that the skin easily absorbs. For best results, one should apply saw palmetto oil overnight. A gentle massage of fifteen minutes is enough to offer the scalp a generous nourishment and hydration. Saw palmetto helps to strengthen the hair roots and prevents the hair from falling thereby.

How Is It Better Than Other Hair Loss Treatments?

Most hair loss treatments can be costly, time-consuming, may have side effects or all three. Common treatments for hair loss are allopathic medication, herbal remedies like hair packs or hair grafting. Most allopathic medications for hair loss are expensive, need to be taken for a long duration of time to be effective and can have adverse side effects in comparison to which saw palmetto is not that expensive and is a herbal remedy that has few or no side effects.

Using hair packs can be time consuming and take up time that can be utilized elsewhere apart from the fact that they can be messy where as it is easier to swallow down a saw palmetto extract supplement or simply apply saw palmetto hair oil regularly. It need not be mentioned how expensive hair transplant or grafting can be apart from the fact that it takes time and most often one session at the doctor’s office isn’t sufficient.

Hope this article has provided you with good enough reasons to give saw palmetto a fair try, right! Try saw palmetto and see for yourself how well it works for you.

Shruti Goenka

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